Sunset Atop Kearsarge (52WAV)

Allison is the founder of trailtosummit.com which she began as a way to track and share her first round of the NH 4000 Footers. Now on round 5 (the first round for her dog Ruckus) she has been honored to have taken part of many people’s firsts. She is an experienced trail maintainer, speaker, and passionate member of the outdoor community. In New England, Allison enjoys trekking along the highest peaks, bushwhacking to less traveled areas, and has a fondness for sunrise and sunset trips. Outside of New England Allison has also thru hiked the John Muir Trail and explored mountains in the German and Austrian Alps, Israel, and the Azores. Her goal is to share her passion for hiking and backpacking with others, especially with women, to inspire them to experience the freedom of the trail!

Mount Kearsarge (2937 feet tall) is a New Hampshire 52 With a View peak near Lake Sunapee. I have been mixing in some 52WAV peaks and decided to try my luck on Memorial Day weekend with a sunset view from the rocky summit of Kearsarge.

It had been raining much of the weekend so the trail was pretty slick and very mucky! Sunset was at 8:16. We only had 1.1 miles to hike to make it up in time.

The higher summits got some new snowfall (at the end of May!) and we were surprised to see Kearsarge got a little, too!

Not a good time to test out how “water resistant” my new trail runners are. I ended up backtracking and going around here.

On our drive up there was a giant grey cloud looming over the mountain, but it didn’t cause any issues. During our hike the skies cleared and we got some amazing views!

The GoPro in action

On the way down we took the Barlow trail. It was a half mile longer and not as steep. This was a nice option in the dark.

Check out my timelapse here. I am looking forward to doing some more sunset/sunrise hikes. The next sunset hike planned in Camel’s Hump in Maine so stay tuned for more!